As company filed into Westminster Abbey for the coronation of King Charles III, a younger man sporting a ceremonial gown of blue and gold beneath a glinting chain of workplace walked up the central aisle and took a prime seat by the choir.
He was the Right Worshipful Lord Mayor of Westminister. And he was extraordinarily nervous. In the automobile, he’d combed his beard and checked his outfit a number of occasions earlier than making his grand entrance.
“You’re in front of millions — you can’t afford to put a step wrong,” Hamza Taouzzale recalled just lately.
Just 22 on the time of his appointment as lord mayor final 12 months, he’s the youngest ever, and the primary Muslim, to carry the ceremonial function, which serves as a type of good-will ambassador for Westminster and its residents. He represents the realm, which covers a lot of central London, at civic occasions with all of the pomp and protocol that comes with the title, which was created by Queen Elizabeth II by letters patent in 1966.
From the second he was sworn in, Mr. Taouzzale, who grew up in a single-parent family in public housing within the British capital, was catapulted into a world of energy and privilege.
In addition to a stipend of 24,000 kilos ($30,600), he was given a capacious workplace; a researcher; a diary supervisor; and a macebearer, who doubled as his chauffeur and etiquette information for high-profile public engagements, many at Buckingham Palace.
The first funeral he attended in his life? Queen Elizabeth’s in September.
“You get to see a range of different lifestyles,” Mr. Taouzzale stated. “Westminster is a tale of two cities,” he added. “You have extreme wealth and extreme poverty.”
Westminster’s borders embody a few of Britain’s most well-known landmarks, just like the Houses of Parliament, the Abbey and Buckingham Palace. It’s additionally house to greater than 250,000 residents, residing in each a few of the nation’s most costly actual property in addition to in public housing, the place many depend on food banks — a distinction that the opposition Labour Party has referred to as a “crisis of inequality.”
Mr. Taouzzale nonetheless lives within the house he grew up in. “My grandmother came to Westminster in her early 20s from Morocco,” he stated. “My mother grew up on this estate, and I was born and raised here. It’s a big part of who I am.”
Active in native politics since 16, he was elected, at 18, as a Labour member of the Westminster City Council, earlier than incomes each a B.A. and an M.A. in politics. He hopes to make use of his council seat as a steppingstone to nationwide workplace, with an eye fixed on getting into Parliament.
The council, whose greater than 50 members have duty for a variety of authorities providers together with council housing, trash assortment and visitors, chooses the lord mayor for every one-year time period.
Mr. Taouzzale stated he was shocked to be chosen, because the publish normally goes to councilors within the autumn of their careers.
“I think it was a statement: a sign that the City of Westminster is moving forward,” he stated. “Before me there wasn’t a single lord mayor who wasn’t from an English or white background.”
He added, “I think it was a sign that the City is becoming more progressive.”
Mr. Taouzzale stated he made a level of attending occasions in his house district, Westminster North, since residents in that densely packed, lower-income space felt it was all the time neglected. “Growing up, I had no idea who the lord mayor was — I had never seen them. I wanted to change that.”
Most lord mayors have had a accomplice or partner to behave as their official consort. Mr. Taouzzale took his mom, aunt and grandmother to huge occasions at Buckingham Palace; youthful siblings, mates and fellow councilors accompanied him to different appearances.
“I did absolutely anything and everything,” he stated. “Even if I didn’t feel like it that day, even the unglamorous stuff.”
Mr. Taouzzale’s formal engagements commenced with the Platinum Jubilee final June, celebrating Queen Elizabeth’s 70 years on the throne. At a night live performance, he discovered himself seated within the royal field straight in entrance of Boris Johnson, then the prime minister, and simply behind the Prince and Princess of Wales.
It was a pinch-me second. Mr. Taouzzale was taking surreptitious photographs of the worldwide figures round him and the crowds beneath as a private memento, or a form of proof of attendance, when somebody tapped him flippantly on the shoulder and whispered: “You don’t have to take pictures, you know. You’ll be on television.”
It typically felt, Mr. Taouzzale stated, as if he was main a surreal double life.
“I would go to a really posh, fancy dinner at a members’ club or a private residence, where everyone would seem to already know each other, they’re in this circle, and then I’d go home and be like, ‘Wait a minute, did I really just do that?’”
Amid all of the pomp and ceremony — at most occasions, he was the highest-ranking person in attendance, forward of even generals, and the final to enter a room (“really weird,” he stated) — got here occasional etiquette snags.
“What fork or knife to use was tricky at first,” Mr. Taouzzale stated. “I never used to have more than one fork or one knife on the table, and suddenly I had three of each. It was like, what do I do?”
The months as lord mayor glided by in a blur. He oversaw the chopping of Britain’s nationwide Christmas tree in Norway and switched on its lights in Trafalgar Square alongside Sadiq Khan, London’s mayor.
“Hamza Taouzzale’s recent term as Lord Mayor of Westminster is emblematic of the strength of London’s diversity,” Mr. Khan stated.
Being the primary Muslim to carry the function required some negotiating, as a part of the lord mayor’s job contains talking repeatedly on the Abbey, an Anglican church.
“Whenever I did a reading at the Abbey, we had to spend a lot of time with the dean to figure out what the right reading was,” he stated. “I am a devout Muslim, I’m not going to hide my faith to read something that I don’t agree with, or don’t think is right. So we always had to find a verse somewhere in the Bible, or a reading, that would match my religious understanding.”
Now that the brand new lord mayor has been sworn in — Mr. Taouzzale has needed to return the robes, the workplace and the automobile with its coveted WE 1 license plate — he’s considering of the long run and in search of a job, because the councilor place is part-time solely, paying about $11,500.
He hopes his time period as lord mayor motivates Westminster’s subsequent technology.
“Growing up in my area, I didn’t feel like we were allowed to have any positive aspirations. They were shut down quite early on,” he stated. “If you had a decent job, people would be like ‘oh, you’re lucky. Oh, you’re lucky you went to university.’ Why isn’t that the bare minimum? Why isn’t it the standard?”
He added: “Hopefully, I’ve been able to inspire people. I hope they can say, ‘well, if Hamza’s done it, I can do that as well.’”
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